Zuma nonchalant despite talk of his impending exit
President seems unfazed by talk of imminent exit
President Jacob Zuma showed no signs of worry during the cabinet lekgotla at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria yesterday.
The cabinet meeting came after news that the ANC’s national working committee has mandated the party’s top six officials, including its president Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary-general Ace Magashule, to tell Zuma to resign before the end of this week.
However, Zuma and Ramaphosa were at ease, joking . with journalists during a photo opportunity at the lekgotla, which was chaired by Zuma.
“You have these photos from last year. They are the same photos, they have not changed. What has changed is the shirts,” Ramaphosa said.
Zuma agreed: “Absolutely, otherwise it is the same thing. I am still Jacob Zuma, he is still Cyril Ramaphosa. So what is your problem? Unless I become the mayor of Nkandla, then you can say there is something serious.”
Issues pertaining to the economy, jobs and free education were on the agenda at the meeting, which ends tomorrow.
Minister of Communications Mmamoloko KubayiNgubane said the meeting would be chaired by Zuma along with Ramaphosa.
“We will be looking at various issues around the econo- my and creating jobs as part of our government.”
Asked if the plan by opposition parties to oust Zuma before the State of the Nation Address (Sona) next Thursday – could be raised at the lekgotla, Kubayi-Ngubane said: “We will not be dealing with that at this forum. If there is any matter that needs to be communicated by the speaker, it will be communicated through the leader of government business to the executive.”
Ramaphosa is the leader of government business in the National Assembly.
The DA and the EFF wrote to Speaker Baleka Mbete yesterday requesting that Zuma should not deliver the Sona.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said “We cannot afford to waste this amount of public money for Jacob Zuma to deliver the government’s programme of action for the coming year in his Sona, when it is not likely that he will remain the president ... much longer.”
In its letter, the EFF stated that the suitability of Zuma to continue in the office of the president was more of an urgent question now than a Sona delivered by an incumbent who was on the verge of appearing in commissions and trials.
In response, Mbete said: “A joint sitting of parliament on the State of the Nation Address is called by the president of the republic in terms of the constitution, through the presiding officers, and is scheduled by the multiparty joint programme committee. In applying their minds, the presiding officers will therefore take into consideration all these factors.”